Non-Aligned Features: The Coincidence of Modernity and the Screen in Indonesia A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Dag S. Yngvesson IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Shaden M. Tageldin and John Mowitt, Co-Advisers December 2016 Copyright Dag S. Yngvesson 2016 i Acknowledgements I begin by thanking the many colleagues, interlocutors and informants who made possible the research and experiences in Indonesia that form the core of my perspective on Indonesian cinema, and thus also of this dissertation. First and foremost I would like to thank the critics, scholars and filmmakers who have frequently and generously made themselves available to “nerd out” on our various common topics of interest. In this regard, from long before I began my career in graduate school, my film collaborations and many, many conversations with Koes Yuliadi have been a continual source of knowledge and inspiration. Koes and Yusma Kaye have also welcomed me time and again as a long-term guest in their home in Jakarta, and for this, and the continuing exchanges that occurred there and elsewhere, I am incredibly thankful. I am also grateful for the friendship and collaboration of Yohanes Subowo, Setyastuti, Warsana Kliwir and Eyin Panca S. at the Indonesian Institute of Arts, Yogyakarta. Diyah Larasati, who first introduced me to ISI and its scholars and artists many years ago, has also been an important source of inspiration, direction and critical engagement with the Javanese courts and other aspects of the politics of culture in Indonesia. I am especially thankful to Degung Santikarma and Leslie Dwyer, excellent collaborators on film and research projects alike who also first broached the life altering suggestion that I might “enjoy” getting a PhD. Both have been a continual source of encouragement, supportive friendship, deep scholarly insight and political commitment. Watching a Nya Abbas Akup film, or listening to AC/DC with Degung is always a particularly transcendent experience. As key members of the same “gang,” I also include and warmly thank Agung Alit, Ibu Mayun, Hilmar Farid, John Roosa, Agung Ayu Ratih, Agung Putri Astrid, Ngurah Termana, Gde Putra, Ika, Wah Agus, Gusindra, Hadhi Kusuma, Rita Dharani, and Yoshi Fajar Kresno Murti, all of whom have been integral to my research, learning, and enjoyment as a filmmaker and budding scholar working in Indonesia. Alit Ambara has been an especially close creative collaborator, source of historical knowledge, and instigator of deep discussions and spirited hijinks alike. When I began coming to Jakarta for research in 2010, I was welcomed by film scholars Ekky Imanjaya, Tito Imanda, Eric Sasono, and Intan Paramaditha. My continuing discussions with all of them (along with reading each others’ work) have been transformative and have greatly expanded my understanding of Indonesia cinema in its material, social and other aspects. My regular exchanges with Intan, and forays into her impressive volume of written and creative work, have been an especially rich source of perspective and inspiration. Hafiz Rancajale, Otty Widasari, Akbar Yumni and the members of Forum Lenteng have also been an incredible source of information about Indonesian and world cinema, and have provided many irreplaceable opportunities for group and individual discussions of films. Their generous invitations to participate in the Arkipel film festival have also allowed for unprecedented chances to curate screenings, discussions and open dialogs on topics relating to my research and beyond. My encounters and conversations with Aryo Danusiri, Reza Idria, and Veronika Kusumayarti represent a further set of important effects of the networks of friends and colleagues built in Jakarta and elsewhere. ii Adisoerya Abdi, Niya, Budi, Sandas, Martono, Firdaus, and other staff members of Sinematek Indonesia have been unflaggingly helpful and generous with their time and resources, providing me access for many months of archival research, including clearance to view films on 35mm as well as on video. Niya’s singularly detailed knowledge of the contents and organization of the library was also an especially invaluable resource from which my work benefitted immensely. The late Gotot Prakosa was a great source of inspiration who became a friend and colleague along the way, and who gave myself and the scholarly communities of Minneapolis and St. Paul much food for thought and discussion with a series of screenings and talks in 2012. Sardono W. Kusumo has also been a deeply generous and invaluable source of knowledge and perspective on Indonesian arts and history. I am very grateful as well for the discussions and opportunities to observe and participate in ongoing projects offered by Yosep Anggi Noen, Riri Riza, and Sinar Ayu Massie. In conversations and exchanges in Indonesia and beyond, David Hanan, Ben Murtagh, Thomas Barker, Gaik Cheng Khoo, Katinka van Heeren, Mariam Lam, Adam Knee, Budi Irawanto and Ari Purnama have been important interlocutors in my work. I think it is safe to say that the Association for Southeast Asian Cinemas, founded by Khoo, has been a vital conduit and inspiration in all of our work and careers; it most definitely has in mine. At the University of Minnesota and elsewhere in the Twin Cities, I am deeply appreciative of the friendship, collegiality and guidance I have received throughout the scholarly community. David Karjanen and Bianet Castellanos particularly stand out as both mentors and friends during my time in Minnesota, as do Brett Wilson, Giancarlo Casale, and John Kim. Rembert Hueser, Verena Mund, and Graeme Stout have also been supportive and inspiring teachers, friends, and coworkers. My graduate student colleagues have been a further source of warm companionship and intellectual enrichment, and I am grateful for the times spent and things learned from Justin Butler, Djordje Popovic, Niloofar Sarlati, Michelle Baroody, Morgan Adamson, Andrea Gyenge, Cole Pulice, and many, many others. Outside of Minnesota, fellow graduate student and former filmmaking collaborator Emily K. Ng has provided incomparable enthusiasm, insight, humor, curiosity, and critical advice on myriad aspects of my graduate studies and other pursuits. The greater community of Minneapolis and St. Paul has also offered a truly outstanding, international band of catalyzers and co-conspirators for the purposes of going out, enjoying oneself, and letting off steam, not to mention providing much-needed emotional support. These are friends and scholars without whose company I could not have made it through this journey to doctoral-hood: Reem El Radi, Mohannad Ghawanmeh, Greg Glarner, Gayani Siriwardena, Leila Bonini, Hatem El-Hommosani, Mahmoud El Sebai, and Fatima Elfilali. Mohannad, with whom I had many inspired and generative discussions of cinema, has happily gone on to pursue a doctoral degree. I have also been very lucky to have a brilliant group of scholars with a diverse set of interests to guide my intellectual journey in Minnesota as advisors and committee members. Keya Ganguly’s broad-minded materialist perspective and astute recommendations of texts and discussions thereof have greatly enriched my understanding of cinema, particularly in its non-Western iterations. Alice Lovejoy has helped immensely in connecting my dissertation research to its Eastern European “roots,” and has critically broadened my comparative and theoretical spheres to include a set of generative connections with Czech cinema in particular. Her excellence and dedication as a teacher and scholar have also been inspirational. Jason iii McGrath’s specialization in Chinese cinema made him an obvious choice for the committee, but his depth of knowledge and theoretical breadth as a geopolitical film scholar and cinephile have contributed to my work and pushed my intellectual development in even more fundamental ways. I am grateful as well for Jason’s rich musical background and knowledge, and for the fact that he shares my undying love of the Minutemen. John Mowitt’s unusually diverse and comprehensive knowledge of theory, and his thorough engagements with cinema, sound and an incredible array of other spheres have been a strong source of learning and inspiration throughout my graduate studies. They have also had a critically important influence on what I have seen, heard, and paid closer attention to in Indonesia, particularly outside of things that are “directly” connected to cinema. John has had an immense impact not only on the theoretical breadth and sophistication of my dissertation project, but also in subtly guiding my process of wandering and bumping into things as I have attempted to formulate a map of cultural studies and locate where I may hope to stand within, or perhaps partially outside of, the field. From the first weeks of an early course I took with Shaden Tageldin, things clicked and I began to see more clearly where the pieces of experience from my past (and ongoing) work as an ethnographic/crosscultural filmmaker might fit into the theoretical and ethical puzzles presented by the process of becoming a scholar and comparatist. Through her inspired and critically wide- ranging engagement with literatures and theories of translation, Shaden seemed to intuit – indeed perhaps to translate – and connect with the ways in which my own scholarly perspective had been shaped by a great deal of time “on the ground” in other places. This rare intuition has been crucial in helping me to find openings into the world of scholarship, and to locate a series of paths on which the direction of my work would feel meaningful and apt. Shaden’s open-mindedness and willingness to engage with the study of film has also helped me to see connections with literature and other media and fields that have greatly enriched the scope and texture of my intellectual project. Her incredible energy and generosity in providing insightful and exhaustive comments and suggestions on both papers and dissertation chapters has been truly transformative.